


My Cup of Tea

by FivePips



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Character, Awkward Flirting, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Coffee Shops, Deaf Character, Deaf Remus Lupin, Demisexual Character, First Meetings, Fluff, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Remus Lupin, Other, asexual sirius, demisexual remus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26350204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FivePips/pseuds/FivePips
Summary: Sirius runs a queer coffee shop, Remus waits outside to meet up with a friend every week -- until they finally come in one day.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 14
Kudos: 207
Collections: Harry Potter Ace Fest 2020





	My Cup of Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt no: 77  
> Ace wolfstar coffee shop au with background queerplatonic dorlene?
> 
> Thank you j for the beta and the mods for this great fest!

Sirius licked his lips, staring out the window at the cutest human he had ever seen in his entire life. Honey colored curls sticking out from under a beanie, and a slightly crooked nose… oh god, and the dimples. They were fucking adorable and every single Thursday the person stopped in front of the bakery, but never came in. They looked at their phone, stood there for a few minutes then would be met by a woman with dark brown hair and a bunch of freckles on her cheeks.

“Stop staring, it’s getting weird.” Dorcas nudged him out of the way of the pastry case. “He probably doesn’t come in because you’re staring.”

“They. They were wearing a shirt that said They/Them last week,” he informed Dorcas before looking over at their regular, Emme, who seemed to be holding back laughter as she waited for her tartlet. “What?”

“You have a crush, it’s cute.” Emme took her latte from Marly.

“ _ Oh my god _ . Sirius Black, just ask them out!” Marlene threw a hand up as she tapped at the iPad.

Sirius huffed, going towards their supply of tea. Dating was shit, he hated it. It always felt like everyone just wanted to go straight to sex. The reason they opened the café, Marlene and him, was because the spaces for queer people always seemed to involve sex. Of course that wasn’t true, but Sirius wanted his own space where it was just chill and welcoming. Not everything had to involve sex. Christ even the queer bookstore down the way had so many books about sex and so many events that had some sort of undertone of it. Coffee, tea, pastries, and sandwiches were not sexy. At least in Sirius’ opinion. Not to mention every other queer space he’d been in was ripe with acephobia.

But dating was the worst. Trying to find other ace people seemed impossible in Godric’s. There was no ace dating app. Why couldn’t he find someone for some snogging and a cuddle? Somedays he wouldn’t even be bothered by occasionally helping his partner get off. Not all the time, but some nights. Most of the time, Sirius just wanted someone else to be himself with. He wanted to be able to laugh with someone while listening to music in his loft or baking. They could watch movies together and hold hands and—

Sirius was interrupted in his thoughts when the bell let out a soft noise to alert him someone had come through. To his surprise it was the adorable person with the beanie and the dimples. Marlene gave Sirius a thumbs up before grabbing Dorcas’ hand and pulling her to the back. Emme was now sitting on the sofa tucked into the corner watching with the biggest grin on her face. Refocusing on the person that just walked in, the one Sirius had been sighing over the last few weeks, Sirius felt himself blush.

“Hi!” Sirius nearly cringed at the high pitch of his voice.  _ Shit, get it together. _

They frowned before understanding dawned on their face as they reached to their ear. It was then Sirius noticed they were wearing a hearing aid— was that what it was called? Well, that meant they most likely didn’t hear his voice go all weird…. Right? Shit, was that wrong to think? 

“Um, sorry,” They glanced at the menu behind Sirius.

“No worries, what can I get you?” He knew if he glanced to his right he’d see Marlene and Dorcas peering out from the back. Emme surely had to be smirking away at them both still.

“Ah, a chai latte — oh, a dark chocolate chai latte.” Their voice was all low and throaty.

“Sure, coming right up. What about a pastry? Chocolate cake? If you like chocolate, I mean. You got all excited about the chocolate in the chai,” Sirius sputtered out, then heard a snort from Emme.

They grinned, laughing softly. “Yeah, chocolate cake sounds good, actually.”

“Great!” Sirius tapped away at the iPad. “Do you want to be a part of our rewards program?” He asked, glancing up at them.

“Um, what is it?” They pulled their beanie off, then ran a hand through their curls.

“You get a free drink after ten visits and we have specials and stuff.” Sirius felt like he managed to gain some composure back.

“Yeah, sure, why not.” They shrugged. “How do I do that?”

“I put your email in then you get a link to our app.” They nodded again as Sirius tapped on the screen. “Email?”

“Remus dot Lupin at [ Gmail.com](http://gmail.com/) .”

“Remus, like Romulus and Remus.”

They groaned, nodding before pointing to Sirius’ name tag. “Yep. I bet you get Sirius  _ like the star _ all the time.”

“Normally people think I’m serious — the emotion — when I don’t have this on.” Sirius gestured to his chest as he sent along Remus’ email before telling them the total. “If you want to sit, I can grab you things and bring them over.”

“Yeah, that’s perfect.” Remus smiled at him before walking over to a table by the window.

Just as he went to go see to the latte, Marlene and Dorcas came bustling out of the back hand-in-hand. Marlene’s face scrunched up in confusion as she came careening over to him, pulling Dorcas along. “Did you ask them out?” Leaning in close to Sirius she kept her voice low.

“No,” he hissed back while attempting to make the latte just right. “That’d be weird.”

“It’s still weird that you’re staring at them,” Dorcas muttered under her breath.

“Now they’re a customer, so it’s weird.”

Just as Sirius was about to hit the button on the frother the bell rang again. He looked over to see it was the girl that Remus met with each week. She wore an apologetic grimace on her face, the corners of her mouth turned down once she saw Remus. Her hands flew up, gesturing an apology. Sirius only knew like four things in BSL, and one of them was  _ sorry _ . After that the woman’s signs and Remus’ responses are lost on Sirius.

Ignoring Marlene and Dorcas (Emme too), Sirius finished the latte then grabbed a slice of cake. Carefully, not to drop everything and make an arse of himself, he headed to Remus’ table.

“Here you go.” Sirius set the food down.

“Thank you.” Remus smiled. Those damn dimples.

“Do you want something?” Managing not to stare at their dimples, Sirius turned to ask their friend.

She signed something with a big smile. This caused Remus to make an annoyed noise. When Sirius looked back to them, hoping for some interpreting. “What was that?”

Remus rolled their eyes, their cheeks now pink. “Alice will have a caramel macchiato.” They put a hand to their rosy cheek.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at them, he could see Alice signing out of the corner of his eye. Remus’ blush deepened.

“And an orange chocolate scone.”

Not asking any questions, Sirius bustled away to get the drink and the scone. Of course he was curious what Alice was saying because he was nosy, and clearly it made Remus embarrassed or something. Probably dumb friend shit like Marlene or James did to him. Whatever it was, she didn’t sign away and make Remus blush when Sirius went over with the order as well as the iPad so Alice could pay.

The rest of their stay passed by, and Remus left with an awkward little wave when Sirius said goodbye. Honestly, how else could that end? Hitting on someone who’s your customer was fucking weird. He could think Remus was cute from a distance, and that was fine.

Except the following week Remus showed up again. They were wearing the sharpest winged liner that Sirius was in awe of. “I like your eye makeup.” Sirius grinned at them before they even got to the register.

“Thanks.” Remus put their hands in the pockets of their very worn out jean jacket. It was covered in pins, it’s cuffs fraying. “I’ll have a dark chocolate chai latte again.”

“Chocolate cake?”

“No, I have to go to this horrid group thing with my friend. It was canceled last week so that was why we stayed.” Remus waved a hand, and Sirius hoped he wasn’t imagining that Remus looked sort of sad not to sit and enjoy their chai at the shop.

“Sorry,” Sirius said tapping at the screen. “Can you skip out?”

Remus shook their head, holding out the QR code for the rewards card on their phone. “Nah, Al runs it and I help out but I think it’s her secret plan to get me to meet other people.”

“Other people are the worst.” Sirius scoffed as he scanned Remus’ phone. “I mean most people.”

“They’re shit. Most people. I mean, I like some of them.” There was a flush on Remus’ cheeks once again. Oh, was Sirius some people then? Please please please let him be.

“Yeah.” Sirius grabbed a cup for Remus’ drink. “Agreed… what do you all do at this gathering?”

“It’s for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people basically to socialize and we do educational and advocacy work too,” they explained as Sirius puttered about. “It’s not terrible, but I’m drowning in coursework right now, so I’m rather grumpy.”

“You’re at Uni?”

“Graduate fellow at Hogwarts.” Remus leaned on the counter.

“Brilliant. I was good at school, don’t get me wrong, but not my favorite so bless you and your academia.” Peter used to hate when he and James got high marks without even cracking a book.

The flush in their cheek was still there, but now deeper. “Ha, it’s great because I can turn off this baby and be at peace without people annoying me when I’m working.” They pointed to their sound processor — Sirius Googled, it was not called a hearing aid.

“Ha, do people leave you alone then or do they get more annoying?”

“As long as we’re not good friends, and I don’t make eye contact then yeah I can manage to ignore them.” Remus had a shit eating grin. Ah, they had a mischievous streak, didn’t they?

“You’re a bit of a bastard, aren’t you?” Sirius handed them their latte, trying not to brush his fingers against theirs but of course it happened.

“You’ve no idea.” They winked, nearly causing Sirius to keel over. “See you round.”

Sirius nodded dumbly with a little wave.  _ Fuck, they were so cute _ .

After that, Remus started to come in twice a week. Apparently they liked the vibe of the place, and took to working at one of the tables by the fake fireplace. Sirius tried not to spend the entire time they were in the shop staring at them or going over to make some conversation about nothing. By the third week, Sirius was sure that he was going to combust from this ridiculous crush. They were flirting too? It just all seemed too good to be true.

“Please. Please, ask them on a date.” Marlene held a butter knife covered in jam in their direction.

Sirius stepped back towards the door. They were currently out back, trying to avoid Remus. “I can't because they're a customer.”

“They flirt with you every damn time,” she hissed, setting the knife down. “Sirius, what the hell are you afraid of? You’re always down to do what you want or what you think is right. What’s the big deal?”

He rubbed a hand over his face, shifting from foot to foot. “Well, I could get my heartbroken  _ or _ they could not get the ace-ness  _ or _ both.”

“You don’t know until you talk to them.” Marlene stepped up to him, giving Sirius a little shove towards the door. “Talk to them or I’ll talk to them for you.”

Sirius glared at her, knowing full well that Marlene McKinnon would talk to Remus about their feelings towards Sirius because Marlene was Marlene. He groaned before bursting through the door to the front, trying to make sure his heart didn’t pound out of his chest. Remus was sitting at their usual table, slumped over their laptop while scribbLing in a journal. Their nose was slightly scrunched up, brow creased. Sirius wondered what they were reading to make them look that way.

When he got to the table, Sirius waved, knowing Remus was either listening to music or they had their processor off. Remus smiled, reaching up towards their ear. God, the dimples and the nose…

“Hiya Sirius, what’s up?”

Sirius flushed just thinking about talking as he took a seat across from Remus. “Hi. Ah, sorry to bother you.”

“No it’s okay,” they ran a hand through their hair. “Breaks are good and needed.”

“Um, you’re… I’m… fuck, I suck. Do you fancy maybe, I don’t know getting a drink and dinner or just dinner or maybe something.” No one On the face of the earth could be worse than him fumbling about with asking someone — a very adorable someone — on a date.

Remus’ eyebrows went up. “Yes. Yeah, of course. Christ l, didn’t know if I was flirting well enough or if you just weren’t interested or—”

“No, no, I’m interested. You’re, well, you’re you.” Sirius covered his face for a moment. “I’m ace though. Not that it matters but I’ve found being up front about it is easier.”

“Yeah? I’m demi.” Remus shrugged and relief washed over Sirius. “Dating can be shit at times.”

“It can be.” Sirius bit his lip. For some reason he didn’t think that this would end up so bad.


End file.
